Copy clips from an arrangement or sequence to clip matrix?

I made the mistake of creating a short section in the usual "sequence" mode from the Main page, rather than the Clip Matrix which I already have a couple parts in. And for the life of me I cannot figure out how to copy or transfer these clips which I can see in "Arrangement" view to the clip matrix. I did succeed in saving the arrangement as clips to the SD card but I don't see a way to load clip files into the clip matrix. There is a function "Copy arrangement to Clip" but there is something else going on which is not obvious as the screens are slightly different depending on.... something. And I don't see any "Load clip matrix slot from file".

Thanks for any clue.

DL

PS I am using "Copy Arrangement to Clip" as shown on page 466 of the manual.

You can select a target. It could be the name of an existing clip in the clip matrix, but if not, it's just "Unused 2", etc. a linear list with no correspondence to the Clip Matrix that I can see. The following pages go on at length about clips, but don't talk about the clip matrix. I really feel like the answer might be on these few pages but the only views they show in the manual are the "Main" view. I'll keep at it.

For terms are wrong. There are no clips in the arranger.
What it sounds like you did was, you record MIDI data into the arranger tracks & are trying to move them to clips in the matrix. If so, you have to go to each track in the Arrg & covert them to clips. Having a good understanding how the Arrg, Seqs & Matrix work will make things easier. Just know that all Seqs/Arrangers share the same 1 clip matrix. the rows on the matrix are like seqs with just a better way to view 8 of them & 8 tracks at once. Akai give us many ways to compose, but you'll have to find your way.

This was like the best video on the clip-matrix:

B-Wise wrote:This was like the best video on the clip-matrix:

Thanks, I have watched it 3 times but this time I actually got to where I was going.

So let's suppose you have some data visible in full "Menu->Arrangement" view that did not come from the Clip Matrix. e.g. you recorded it directly in Main mode.

You have to go track by track. Select the track header and hold it down. Select "Copy Arrangement to Clip" and then from the dialog choose the target row. The clip will be created in the same track that you selected to be the source. That was another point of confusion. The list will show clips you may have already named in that track in Clip Matrix as well as "unused". If you select an existing clip it will be over written.

Choose by the number of the row you are copying the data to.

Finally, when you are in "Main" mode, sometimes you see Arrangement data and sometimes you don't. I think this relates to the clip/arrangement selector you see on the right side of Arrangement view. Not sure and hope to remember long enough to check it out.

DL

Digital Larry wrote:So let's suppose you have some data visible in full "Menu->Arrangement" view that did not come from the Clip Matrix. e.g. you recorded it directly in Main mode.

Moral of the story, don't record in Main mode - but always from the Clip Matrix ?

Jean-Marc Liotier wrote:

Digital Larry wrote:So let's suppose you have some data visible in full "Menu->Arrangement" view that did not come from the Clip Matrix. e.g. you recorded it directly in Main mode.

Moral of the story, don't record in Main mode - but always from the Clip Matrix ?

Basically. I use the CM as a pre-arranger & now with the Follow Actions you don't even have to use the arranger. I also used the first 32 clips/rows just for pattern ideas & will use next set of rows for the pre-arranger(s).

In the main mode , you can press just to the left of the tab where the clip or arrangement word is and a contextual menu pops up . With the copy option in it , it’s has different options depending wether your viewing a clip or arrangement . You can also do the same on the track name tab too and change the track type.

Thanks for the various comments and observations. I'm beginning to feel more productive on this thing now. The next thing I'd like to figure out is the best way to pull in a section from a different project. I've just mixed it down to audio and put it into a single clip, which does work, somewhat at the expense of further flexibility with that part.

Digital Larry wrote:Thanks for the various comments and observations. I'm beginning to feel more productive on this thing now. The next thing I'd like to figure out is the best way to pull in a section from a different project. I've just mixed it down to audio and put it into a single clip, which does work, somewhat at the expense of further flexibility with that part.

I don't know you mean by section, but you can save the track(s) as a file & load it into another project.

B-Wise wrote:

Digital Larry wrote:Thanks for the various comments and observations. I'm beginning to feel more productive on this thing now. The next thing I'd like to figure out is the best way to pull in a section from a different project. I've just mixed it down to audio and put it into a single clip, which does work, somewhat at the expense of further flexibility with that part.

I don't know you mean by section, but you can save the track(s) as a file & load it into another project.

Yeah it's a similar problem I face with Ableton. I am working on something and want to come up with a new part. This would be a session scene in Live or a Sequence/Clip Row on MPC. I come up with a new part and think it's actually not great for what I'm doing now but might work better in something else I'm already working on.

MPC exporting/loading tracks seems tedious but does ultimately make sense I guess as you'd have no idea what tracks were being used in the project you were going to load the parts into. It'd be cool to have some sort of import dialog that would let you map incoming drum/audio/MIDI/CV tracks to either (1) existing track (losing all synth settings, etc.) or create a new track (keeping all synth settings).

The "new part doesn't work well with my old parts" scenario is about 80% of my time on the MPC/DAW. So I wind up with a lot of unfinished projects. Ones that make it further, either they were more or less okay to begin with, or I manage to either whittle down or add transitional parts to get from here to there but it doesn't really solve the original issue.